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Re: Led's
Posted By: james1095 In Response To: Re: Led's (oldskool)
Date: Friday, 5 March 2010, at 3:06 a.m.
> $10k a year savings.....in electricity
> costs....yet more LED propaganda.Im 37 years
> old,and until the last few years I have
> NEVER seen a traffic light burnt out.Ive
> seen it 3 times in the last 18 months,and
> coincidently,the city changed traffic lights
> to LED's about 2 years ago.With the influx
> of new LED signage in the last 3 years in my
> area,comes more dim,ugly and signs with
> sections burnt out than ever before.It has
> also opened the door for these second rate
> shops that had never done illuminated signs
> to venture into our end of the market.The
> signs these bozo's are building are poor
> quality,ugly and dangerous as most are not
> built right or up to code.There are some
> shops in my area that have national clients
> as customers.Some of these customers made
> the switch to LED's,and we have noticed that
> some are coming back to neon because it
> looks better and lasts longer [a true
> 100,000 hrs],and didnt see much of an energy
> savings.Sorry, I had recalled what I was told incorrectly, that was $10K over the 10 year test period or $1K per year, no propaganda, I've got a family member who does the signal maintenance for the city, I collect traffic signals and related bits, as well as light sources of all kinds so it's an interest of mine, it's actually in his best interest for them to require more frequent maintenance, and I've got nothing to gain either way. Lighting is only a hobby for me, software pays the bills.
Four way intersection with left turn signals on all four sides. 12" signal heads means 159W incandescent lamps x3 per side on at any given time. Four sides means 12 lamps, so 1.9 KW consumption 24/7, that's 45KWH per day, 16425 KWH per year, which at 7 cents per KWH works out to about $1150 per year. The LED signals that replaced them are ~10W per unit, so less than 10% the consumption of incandescent, so not hard to believe a savings of $1K per intersection per year, not including the reduced maintenance.
The LED signals in that installation held up fine, as do most I see in this region, but I have certainly seen a lot of failing ones in other places. Hot climates, and inferior quality products are to blame. Quality LEDs can be had, but they cost more, so most of what you see out there is junk from China, some of which are so bad that they fail in a matter of months.
Again, I'm very pro-neon, I've loved neon signs my entire life, and I don't find LED signs to be particularly attractive, nor are they nearly as robust, but there *are* applications where LEDs work very well. It's not any more fair to make a blanket statement that they're crap than it is to tout them as the solution to everything.
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